Arista Offers Subscription-based CloudVision for Workload Orchestration

Arista Networks introduces its CloudVision network-wide approach for workload orchestration and workflow automation.

The idea is to provide a turnkey solution for sharing network-wide switch state data across a cloud and integrating with SDN controllers from Arista's ecosystem partner community.

Arista CloudVision extends the SDN architectural approach across the network for state, topology, monitoring and visibility.

Key attributes of Arista's CloudVision:

• Centralized representation of distributed network state, allowing for a single point of integration and network-wide visibility and analytics
• Controller agnostic support for physical and virtual workload orchestration through open APIs such as OVSDB, JSON and OpenStack plugins.
• Turn-key workflow automation for zero touch provisioning, configuration management and network-wide upgrades and rollback.
• Compliance dashboard for security, audit and patch management
• Real-time Streaming for telemetry and network analytics, a modern approach to replace legacy polling per device.
• Provides visibility and troubleshooting for underlay and overlay networks

Arista CloudVision is available now as a software subscription, expanding Arista’s existing software subscription offerings. Pricing starts at $295/device per month.

Arista CloudVision partners include, Dell, F5, HP, Infinera, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Rackspace, Supermicro, and VMware.

“Today more than ever, customers are empowered with software-defined technologies from leaders such as VMware and Arista Networks to gain the agility they need to respond to market opportunities and a rapidly changing business environment,” said Hatem Naguib, Vice President, Networking and Security at VMware. “Through interoperability between our portfolio of software-defined data center offerings and the new Arista CloudVision solution, our mutual customers can move forward with confidence to achieve their IT goals of a more automated, secure, and highly available data center that drives business value.”

“Microsoft and Arista have a long history of partnering on industry-leading data center solutions, and we are committed to helping customers leverage software defined technologies to be more agile and efficient in today’s cloud-first world,” said Mike Schutz, General Manager, Cloud Platform, Microsoft. “CloudVision’s open and programmable underlay make it an ideal complement to Microsoft Cloud Platform solutions, which will enable us to jointly help even more customers transform their datacenter for the cloud era.”

http://www.arista.com/en/company/news/press-release/1153-pr-20150623

Read More

Freescale Intros Multicore Processors based on ARM Cortex-A53

Freescale Semiconductor introduced its QorIQ LS1088A octal and LS1048A quad multicore processors based on the performance-optimized and power-conscious 64-bit capable ARM Cortex-A53 cores for network edge applications.

The devices integrate Freescale’s second-generation datapath acceleration architecture (DPAA2), delivering datapath offload with software developers in mind, and providing networking engineers with the processing resources to deliver low power, flexible and cost-efficient solutions for new virtualized networks as envisioned by ARM and others.

The new processors feature Cortex-A53 cores running up to 1.5 GHz, along with DDR4 memory controllers and up to two 10 Gbps and eight 1 Gbps Ethernet interfaces with L2 switch capabilities. These ultra-low-power processors are specifically designed for intelligent edge access equipment, NFV and virtual CPE solutions, industrial control systems and intelligent NIC applications.

“Last year we announced the QorIQ LS2 family for the new virtualized network, and today we are in full execution mode and are uniquely positioned for even greater portfolio expansion with the upcoming integration of Cortex-A72 core technology,” said Tareq Bustami, vice president of Freescale's Digital Networking group. “Continuing this momentum, we’re making the network more personal by bringing data closer and more accessible to consumers. The QorIQ LS1088A processor pairs our offload datapath with ARM’s most advanced 64-bit capable Cortex-A53 core, providing an excellent balance of low power and high performance, and bringing an advanced architectural solution to the value tier and the intelligent edge.”


Freescale has also announced plans to use the ARM Cortex-A72 core in a forthcoming communications processor. Planned for integration into an upcoming QorIQ LS2 processor product line, the Cortex-A72 core is the highest-performance and most advanced ARMv8-A processor core. Cortex-A72 technology simultaneously reduces overall power consumption while delivering best-in-class performance.

Freescale’s QorIQ LS1088A and LS1048A devices are planned for availability in Q1 2016.

http://www.freescale.com

Read More

Coriant Announces CloudWave Optics with Programmable Modulation

Coriant unveiled a suite of software-programmable photonic layer technologies for bringing flexibility, efficiency, and scalability to next-generation optical transmission networks.

The Coriant CloudWave Optics suite includes photonics, software programmable line side modulation, tunable spectral allocation, and channel frequency flexibility capabilities. The suite can be implemented on the Coriant hiT 7300 Multi-Haul Transport Platform and the Coriant mTera™ Universal Transport Platform.

Key features and benefits of Coriant's flexi-rate solutions portfolio include:

• Flexible, multi-functional provisioning of service capacity with a single, compact and software-programmable line side interface that can dynamically adapt to a wide range of metro, regional, LH, ULH, subsea, and DCI transport applications
• Cost-optimized capacity, reach and service performance based on a unique combination of flexi-rate and super-channel features with dynamically adjustable modulation formats (e.g., QPSK, 8QAM, 16QAM), flexible bit rate transmission options (100G, 200G, 300G, 400G), and state-of-the-art RAMAN with up to 25.6Tb/s per fiber in meshed optical networks
• Lower total cost of ownership via industry-leading power and space efficiency, increased spectral efficiency (up to 33%), increased fiber capacity (up to 166%), and reduced sparing requirements
• Optimal utilization of optical channel capacity with an innovative, software-programmable system architecture that maximizes client/line-side interconnectivity and throughput efficiencies
• Seamless interworking with all legacy and third-party infrastructure (e.g., fixed, colorless, directionless, gridless, 40/80/96 channels, etc.), all major fiber types, and across Coriant's metro, ULH/LH, and DCI-optimized packet optical transport platforms

"Increased demand for dynamic, cloud-centric services and applications is a driving force behind innovation in optical layer technologies," said Ken Craft, Executive Vice, Products and Technology, Coriant. "Our programmable flexi-rate capabilities are specifically designed to help service providers and data center operators efficiently and cost-effectively scale their service infrastructure in the face of continued demand for network capacity and highly unpredictable traffic patterns and transport connectivity requirements."

http://www.coriant.com/company/press_release.asp?id=1231

Read More

TeliaSonera IC Tests Coriant's 400G in European Network

TeliaSonera International Carrier (TSIC) has completed a test of Coriant's 400G optical transmission technology in its European backbone.

The trial used TSIC’s existing Coriant hiT 7300 Multi-Haul Transport Platforms with new Coriant CloudWave™ Optics, a versatile suite of software-programmable photonic layer technologies.

Conducted over multiple spans across a 1,634 kilometer fiber optic route between Paris, Luxembourg, and Frankfurt, the TSIC field trial featured the successful transmission of three different software-programmable modulation formats – QPSK, 8QAM, and 16QAM – over the complete distance of 1,634 kilometers each. The trial also featured a variety of line-side transmission speeds (100G, 200G, 300G, 400G) in a mix of capacity and reach application test scenarios. The link represented a popular network scenario, being based purely on Standard Single-Mode Fiber (SSMF) and EDFA-only amplification.

“Staying ahead of the customers ever increasing connectivity needs are paramount for us. This 400G field trial is all about ensuring the flexibility at all layers of the network, and especially in the underlying high-capacity transport infrastructure required for delivering the best high performance connectivity for our customers and their end-users,” said Mattias Fridström, Vice President and Head of Technology, TeliaSonera International Carrier.

http://www.teliasoneraic.com
http://www.coriant.com

Read More

Cisco Signs Up for 20MW of Solar Energy

Cisco reached a deal with NRG Energy to develop a 20 megawatt (MW) solar energy facility that will generate clean, reliable solar power for Cisco's San Jose headquarters.

NRG Renew LLC will convert its NRG Solar Blythe II location, which is a 153-acre parcel in the Sonoran desert near the Arizona/California border, into a solar installation that will help Cisco reach its goal of using renewable sources for at least 25 percent of its electricity needs by 2017.  The project is scheduled to begin commercial operation by the end of 2016.

"Enabling a diverse energy supply through low-carbon and renewable sources is key to meeting Cisco's energy goals set forth in 2013. We thoroughly vetted potential solutions to help us realize our sustainability goals and are thrilled to collaborate with NRG to source renewable energy and increase our use of solar power. We look forward to exploring new, innovative ways to green the power we use," said Ali Ahmed, Global Energy and Sustainability Leader, Cisco.

http://www.cisco.com

Read More

Google Container Engine Enters Beta Along with Container Registry

Google Container Engine has entered public beta and the new Google Container Registry has become generally available.

Google Container Engine, based on the Kubernetes open source container orchestration system, provides tools for setting-up and managing a cluster of containers. Container Engine supports the common Docker container format. Google also announced pricing for once the free beta period is over: standard clusters that run up to 100 virtual machine nodes will be charged $0.15 per hour. Basic clusters of up to 5 VM nodes have no additional charge.

Google Container Registry is a private repository for storing container images.

https://cloud.google.com/container-engine/

Read More

AtScale Raises Funding for Business Intelligence Interface for Hadoop

AtScale, a start-up based in San Mateo, California, announced $7 million in series A funding for its business intelligence solution for Hadoop.

AtScale aims to is the glue between two fast-growing but currently disconnected markets: Big Data, estimated at $50B by Wikibon, and the Business Analytics industry, a space IDC predicts will reach $59.2B in 2018.

AtScale requires no data movement and no new visualization interface to act as the business interface for Hadoop. It provides a unified semantic layer that natively integrates with tools like Microsoft Excel, Tableau Software and Qliktech. The company says it accelerates query performance by 100 times.

The company is headed by Dave Mariani (CEO and founder), who previously was responsible for Yahoo!'s advertising and web properties. Mariani and his team processed over 30 billion events per day in Hadoop, making that data available to business users. Later, when at Klout, Mariani’s team managed a large-scale Hadoop cluster that powered a 1 trillion-row data warehouse.

http://www.AtScale.com

Read More

IBM Offers Docker-based Containers on Bluemix

IBM is supporting containers based on Docker and built on Bluemix, its platform-as-a-service.

IBM said its enterprise customers will now be able to use the combination of IBM, Docker, Cloud Foundry and OpenStack to create a new generation of portable distributed applications.

Additionally, IBM claims the industry's best performance of Java on Docker. IBM Java is optimized to be two times faster and occupies half the memory when used with the IBM Containers Service. Moreover, as a Docker based service, IBM Containers include open features and interfaces such as the new Docker Compose orchestration services.

IBM is a member of the new Open Container Platform (OCP) Project.

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/47165.wss

Read More

Enigma Raises $28 Million for its Analytics Engine

Enigma, a start-up based in New York City, announced a $28.2 million Series B funding round to support its work in data discovery and analytics.

Enigma has developed an analytics engine that can search, discover and connect billions of previously unlinked public records from thousands of governments and organizations across the world. Enigma is now focusing these capabilities on the enterprise market, bringing its unique corpus of public data to bear on the problems and operational challenges facing the Fortune 500.

The funding round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with participation from Two Sigma Ventures and New York City Investment Fund, as well as existing investors American Express Ventures, Comcast Ventures and The New York Times Company.

“Enigma was created out of a realization that there is a massive amount of hidden knowledge that is locked away in various data silos and legacy systems -- when people have the tools to make sense of it, data can drive significant and impactful change,” said Marc DaCosta, co-founder and chairman of Enigma. “Abstract and Signals make it easy for organizations of every kind to liberate their own private data and unearth new insights that will allow them to make smart decisions, increase efficiency and compete more effectively.”

http://www.enigma.io

Read More

Verizon Completes Acquisition of AOL, building its Mobile Content Portfolio

Verizon Communications completed its previously announced acquisition of AOL for $50.00 per share in cash, a total cost of $4.4 billion.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong continues to lead AOL operations after the closing, and Bob Toohey, president of Verizon Digital Media Services, will report to Armstrong, who in turn will report to Marni Walden, Verizon executive vice president and president of Product Innovation and New Businesses.

http://www.verizon.com

• At the time the deal was announced in May 2015, Verizon said the AOL content further drives its LTE wireless video and OTT (over-the-top video) strategy. The agreement will also support and connect to Verizon’s IoT (Internet of Things) platforms, creating a growth platform from wireless to IoT for consumers and businesses.

Read More